St Ives buys Hive

The marketing and publishing firm St Ives Group has bought The Hive Group as part of its strategy to create a complementary range of marketing and communications services.

Post-acquisition, the central London-based Hive Group will operate as a subsidiary of St Ives. It will continue to be run by its existing management team, including founding directors Ian Busby, Jas Hummel and Tim Scorer. There will be no change to staff numbers, St Ives told PMLiVE.

Set up in 2008, The Hive Group today has more than 75 employees. It provides strategic consulting and communications services to an international client base, including six of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies.

The group operates across three main divisions: Hive, its strategic healthcare consultancy and communications business, Pollen, a strategic medical communications consultancy, and eBee, a specialist digital healthcare agency.

The St Ives Group chairman, Patrick Martell, said that he was delighted to welcome the Hive team to the group, adding that Hive's blend of consultancy services and digital services would complement St Ives' existing marketing services businesses.

Hive's Busby, Hummel and Scorer described the acquisition as 'a testament to the talent of our whole team and the uniqueness of our business'.

The acquisition followed a six month long global process which saw The Hive Group look at a number of potential buyers, from private equity to big global partner, to find one that was right for the brand and the business, both now and in the future.